Training can enhance the skill of individuals by repetition and developing appropriate responses to various situations. In the combat context, combatants may conduct various types of training exercises in order to prepare for scenarios that can be anticipated in actual combat situations.
The Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES) is a system designed for combatants involved in training exercises in order to provide a realistic training battlefield environment. The MILES system includes simulated offensive weapons, such as firearms, that provides tactical engagement simulation for direct fire force-on-force training by emitting relatively harmless near infrared (e.g., eye-safe) line-of-sight “bullets” generated by one or more light emitting diodes (LED) or lasers.
The “bullets” are sent in the form of pulses that transmit weapon information to the target. These pulses are transmitted each time the weapon is fired with a blank or blanks to simulate the firing of an actual round or multiple rounds. An audio sensor or a photo-optic sensor typically detects the firing of the blank round(s) and simultaneously energizes an LED or laser to emit the beam of “bullets” toward the target which is in the conventional sights of the weapon.
Information contained in the pulses (such as by intensity modulation) generally includes the combatant (e.g., player) identification (e.g., player identification (PID) code) and the type of weapon used so that the identity of a combatant who has made a “kill” can be ascertained. Each individual and vehicle (each can be considered a combatant) in the training exercise has a detection system to sense hits, player units and control systems which include a microprocessor based control circuit for processing the signals from the photodetectors to determine if there has been a hit, the type of weapon registering the hit, and the identity of the shooter. Transmitters are attached to each individual and vehicle weapon system target that transmits a casualty assessment that is calculated based on the actual ranges and lethality of the specific weapon systems. After performing casualty assessment, a control circuit provides status information to the player, indicating on a display whether the player has been “killed”. MILES training has been proven to dramatically increase the combat readiness and fighting effectiveness of military forces.
In conventional force-on-force training, a cluster of photodetectors on a target must be placed near the center of mass (i.e. center of the torso) so that a beam firing “bullet” at that point can be detected. The number of photodetectors and the separation between each photodetector in a cluster is dependent on the beam characteristics at the minimum range to be used in the training exercise because the beam size of the “bullets” from the transmitter (e.g., LED or laser transmitter) starts off very small (e.g., few mm in dimension) and continuously expands as it moves away from the transmitter.
In order to insure that the beam does not hit a target position between photodetectors, and thus not be detected, a plurality of target photodetectors are conventionally placed very close to the center of mass in a cluster. However, photodetector placements clustered around the center of a chest do not support an aim point near the neck or head so that additional photodetectors must be placed in those areas if a complete simulation is desired at all ranges. For example, combatants may be fitted with photodetectors on both the helmet and the body harness attached to the torso for detecting “bullet” hits. Unfortunately, such an implementation requires a large number of expensive photodetectors, battery power to each photodetector, as well as complex internal wiring.